Communication Department News

The deadline for donating food to the Golden Key International Honour Society’s 3rd Annual Golden CAN Food Drive is Monday, Nov. 25. The Department of Communication is participating in the annual drive to aid the hungry in North Texas.

A box for nonperishable food items is located in the Communication Main office, Room 118, Fine Arts. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to donate.

While every donation is appreciated, the following food items support healthy eating habits:

Donations will be picked up Monday, Nov. 25 and will be given to a local food bank.. Awards will be presented to the department with the most total weight of goods donated and the most creatively decorated collection box.

The Society's goal is to surpass the record collection of 464 lbs. Every 10 pounds of food feeds a family of four for a day.

The Association for Women in Communications invites female undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines and departments to a general meeting at noon Sept. 25 in the Fine Arts, Room 409. Refreshments will be served.

The AWC is a student organization that seeks to equip and prepare educated women for successful careers.

"Although we are a communication organization, we invite women in all areas of study to join as communication exists in many forms in every career," explained Chapter President Gemme Campbell.

"We anticipate scheduling professional development seminars and speakers focused on the unique needs of women in the workforce, and providing members with the opportunity to network with exceptional women who have proven records of success," Campbell added.

Students interested in joining may sign-up online through the following link:

“The students learned what types of questions reporters often
ask and how to respond to them in the best possible way,” Wigley said.

During the workshop, students learned to never answer
hypothetical questions or to speculate on what they think might happen in
certain situations. They also learned to avoid saying “no comment” and to look
at the cameras, not the reporters when answering questions. The students were
taught to always answer the reporter’s question but to link answers back to the
message they want to get across.

Following the workshop, the student athletes participated in
mock interviews inside the UTA TV Studio in front of cameras.

“Overall the student athletes did a nice job when we went into
the studio,” Wigley said.

Wigley said news training for athletes is important because they
are often interviewed by members of the media.

“It is important that they present themselves, their team and
the university in the best possible light,” Wigley said.

Wigley will be meeting with UTA Athletics to discuss doing more
media training workshops in the future, especially for incoming freshmen
athletes.

UTA Department of Communication students are getting hands-on, real-world experience through internships this fall.

Through internships, Communication students take classroom learning to practical application. Many upper-level students eligible for internships who meet GPA and course requirements take advantage of the department’s numerous professional relationships with local media, corporations and nonprofit organizations by landing coveted internships each semester. Students approved for internships receive three hours of upper-level course credit.

This semester, Department of Communication students are interning at companies throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Broadcast students are interning for a variety of local media outlets and companies this fall. Melissa Irvin is serving as a media specialist for Farmers Insurance Group. Jairo Moreno is working for The Red Balloon Network in Dallas this semester. Angelina Armendariz is interning with Children's Medical Center in Dallas while Rodney Thrower is gaining experience at K104 Radio in Grand Prairie. Samantha Gutierrez landed a fall internship with Clear Channel Radio in Dallas and Omar Castillon is working at Fort Worth’s Modern Art Museum. BCMN major Shaun Hudgins is interning with CBS Radio 105.3 - The Fan in Dallas.

Public Relations majors are also adding experience to their resumes. Alexis Valdez is working with the Fort Worth Independent School District and Victoria I. Garcia is interning with Clear Channel Radio. Brent Collins is spending the fall semester with Tamika Johnson Events - The Experts, a Grand Prairie-based PR firm.

The first American Advertising Federation (AAF) general meeting of the semester will take place at 4 p.m. Sept. 18 in Room 414 of the Fine Arts Building.

Students will have the opportunity to mingle with fellow ad majors and hear about upcoming AAF projects planned for the semester. This is also an opportunity to gain official AAF membership for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Two artist submissions from UTA Radio will appear on the upcoming 2013
College Radio Day Album due out Nov. 5.

The
Apache 5 and The Breakfast Machine, made up of current and former UTA students,
will each have a song featured on the album. It will be released in conjunction with College
Radio Day.

“Submissions were solicited from college stations around the
country,” said UTA Radio Faculty Advisor Lance Liguez. “We’re thrilled to help
not just one, but two, local artists gain some national and international exposure.”

Both bands have been nominated for various local awards in the past, including
Best New Artist and Best Vocalist.

Oct. 1 marks the third year for College
Radio Day, an event aimed to raise
awareness of the many college stations that operate worldwide by encouraging
people who would not normally listen to college radio to do so.

Last year’s
event included participation by 585 college stations from 29 countries, including UTA Radio.

While some employers are considered to hire predominately engineering and business students, many are also interested in hiring students from many other disciplines as well. Companies attending the Job Fair have with openings in a variety of professional positions, offering students numerous opportunities to work and intern.

The Job Fair is only open to current UT Arlington students and alumni, providing an invaluable networking opportunity. Students should wear suits and bring plenty of copies of their resume.

Congratulations to all of our well-deserving students and to our faculty for mentoring them so well.

The Department of Communication offers a number of departmental scholarships each year for students in all Communication majors. Scholarship applications are due in early March for presentation at the department's Spring Convocation ceremony.

UTA’s chapter of Association for Women in Communications, AWC, is
gearing up for the fall semester. The group’s faculty adviser is new UTA
lecturer Carie Kapellusch.

“The mission of the AWC is to enhance the lives of local
communications students by promoting leadership and positioning its members at
the forefront of the evolving communications era,” Kapellusch said.

Founded in 1909, the AWC is a professional organization that
champions the advancement of women across all disciplines of communication by
providing professional development and networking for its members.

Members will gain the benefits of networking, camaraderie and
professional development which will pay for an AWC membership many times over
throughout students’ communication careers. Membership is open to all
communication majors from marketing to journalism, design to writing,
photography and public relations.

An informational meeting will be held Wednesday Sept. 11 at noon
in the Fine Arts Building Room 414.

Membership cost is $39 annually and is open to everyone with an
interest in growing and developing as a professional.

The UTA chapter of
Society of Professional Journalists will host a fall
kickoff event at noon on Sept. 9 in Room 409 of the Fine Arts building.

All
current SPJ members and communication students interested in joining the
organization are welcome to attend the fall kickoff meeting which will detail
the group’s semester plans, upcoming events and workshops.

Complimentary pizza
will be served. Students should bring their own drinks.

Many Department of Communication faculty members spent the summer months presenting articles and attending conferences.

Several professors have had articles selected for inclusion in a variety of publications in recent weeks.

Dr. Mark Tremayne and Dr. Andrew Clark’s article “New perspectives from the sky: Unmanned aerial vehicles and journalism,” published in May in Digital Journalism, has received national and international media attention.

Dr. Karishma Chatterjee and Dr.Charla Markham Shaw’s article, “Media portrayals of the female condom,” published in the Journal of Health Communication, is the No. 1 article published in the last year in the domain of sexual health according to MEDLINE and BioMedLib.

Julian Rodriguez published a book chapter, “Twitter use among English and Spanish language television stations: A traffic and content analysis of Dallas-Fort Worth local television accounts,” in the edited book Media Management and Economics Research in a Transmedia Environment.

Dr. Mark Tremayne and Milad Minooie (graduate student) will soon see their paper "Opinion leadership on gun control in social networks: Preferential attachment versus reciprocal linking,” in the American Communication Journal. The manuscript was based on a paper presented this summer at ICA.

Faculty and staff also spent summer months making presentations at numerous conferences.

Dr. Erika Pribanic-Smith presented her paper, “Partisanship in the Antislavery Press During the 1844 Run of an Abolition Candidate for President,” at this summer’s annual AEJMC conference in Washington, DC—and won the second place faculty paper award in the History Division. Dr. Pribanic-Smith also had an article of original research published in August in the journal American Journalism entitled "Conflict in the South Carolina Partisan Press of 1829."

Julian Rodriguez is conducting a survey of "dreamers" or undocumented immigrants who are over the age of 18 and living in Texas. His research was featured this summer on Univision/KUVN 23.

Dr. Tom Christie traveled to Budapest, Hungary to present a paper, “Democracy vs. Opportunity: Revealing the Nature of Conflict Communication Following the ‘Arab Spring’,” at the George Gerbner Conference on Communication, Conflict and Aggression.

Dr. Dustin Harp traveled to London to present a co-authored paper, “Where are the women? The presence of female columnists in U.S. opinion pages,” at the International Communication Association. She also presented a co-authored paper, “The double bind of political women: Coverage of Hillary Clinton's performance during the Benghazi Hearings,” at AEJMC that won the top faculty paper award in the Commission on the Status of Women Division.

Dr. Chunke Su presented a co-authored paper, “The combined roles of mastery and performance climates in implementing creative ideas,” at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Orlando.

Dr. Shelley Wigley presented two co-authored papers at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Convention in August: “Processing of persuasive messages” and “Subsidizing Sandy: Courage of Hurricane Sandy.”

The Department of Communication has set a date for this year’s Comm Day. This fall’s event is slated for Oct. 31 and will focus on student internships.

A wide variety of local companies and nonprofit organizations will have representatives on hand to discuss the importance of internships for soon-to-graduate students and to provide information on internship opportunities available for UTA Department of Communication students in all disciplines.

This year’s keynote speaker for Comm Day will be noted storm chaser Martin Lisius. Lisius will share his own internship experiences as well as insight into his dangerous and interesting profession.

Communication students will attend Communication Day with their classes and have the opportunity to engage in a variety of lectures, panels and discussions and meet with industry professionals. Dr. Andrew Clark is this year’s event committee chairman.